De Verneuil. 279 
Art. XXIX.—De Verneuil. Eulogy of M. Dausrts, June 4, 
1878. 
t 
. been deprived, alike eminent in character and intelligence, 
position consecrated with zeal to science and crowned with im- 
portant discoveries. 
Puttirpe Epovarp PovULLETIER DE VERNEUIL, born at 
Paris, Feb. 12th, 1805, was destined to the magistracy, and had > 
attained to twenty-five years of age, when the events of 1880 
put an end to his plans in that direction. 
_Atthe moment when he hesitated as to what pursuit to devote 
himself, geology was making marked progress. No. only was 
it admitted that the crust of the earth, instead of having always 
remained unchanged, as the school of Werner demanded, ha 
undergone foldings and fractures which revealed transformations 
in its structure, but it was becoming possible to determine 
the relation in age of these phenomena. It was under such 
circumstances that M. de Verneuil felt himself drawn toward 
geology, and that he followed with great ardor the lectures in 
which M. Elie de Beaumont developed these new ideas. e 
great questions connected with the history of the globe soon 
took strong hold of him, and’he resolved not to remain a mere 
spectator of the discoveries of others. : 
Recognizing the fact that in geology, as in all the sciences of 
er- 
gations of two — English geologist 
Z 
under the general name of Transition formations. As has more 
than once happened, this first journey had a decisive influence 
upon the future direction of the researches of M. de erneuil, 
and upon the character of the services to science by which. he 
mpare soon led him to the. east. He 
turned toward Turkey, following down the Danube, on which 
Steam navigation was just then “ntroduced, and, led on by meet- 
ing those who sympathized in his objects, he went through 
